EYFS

The Early Years Foundation Stage is your child’s experience of school between the ages of 3-5 years. At Brampton Primary School we place great importance on giving your child the perfect first taster of school life! 

We welcome children into the Foundation Stage at the beginning of the term following their third birthday. Children usually attend part time Nursery (mornings or afternoons) until the September after their fourth birthday. We now also offer some 30 hour Nursery places for eligible parents - please contact the school office for more information. In the September following their fourth birthday, children start in the Reception class full time.

When your child first starts Nursery or the Reception class it is a very big step. We aim to make this transition into school as exciting and worry free as we can for children. We work closely with parents to build a firm partnership between home and school to ease this transition process.

Intent

Within our Early Years Unit, our utmost priority is to ensure our children are happy and safe within school. We are also highly focused on the development of personal, social and emotional development as well as core British values. We aim for all of our pupils to have the skills and values that will enable them to play a positive role in society.

In addition to this, we aim to provide motivating first-hand experiences and interactions to enable children to reach their full potential. We aim for all of our pupils to build resilience, ambition and a lifelong love of learning whilst also learning how to look after their own mental health and wellbeing. Through our environment, interactions and planned learning experiences, we aim to develop a culture of curiosity and the successful acquisition of characteristics of effective learning.

We aim to build on the wealth of knowledge children already have from their pre-school and home environments by developing links with other settings and strong links with parents. We strive for success from all of our pupils, encouraging all pupils to ‘be the best they can be’ as our school motto states.

Our school ethos of ‘Respectful, Responsible and Resilient’ is at the heart of our EYFS curriculum. We recognise that all children are individuals with their own strengths, interests and developmental needs. Therefore, if needed, we make adaptations to our curriculum to follow the interests and fascinations of the children in the current year group whilst also building specific knowledge and skills, identified through the areas of learning.

Throughout the EYFS, there is a real focus on language development and vocabulary acquisition. We aim for children to be confident communicators and to use communication as a way of furthering their learning through collaboration with others.

The EYFS is the beginning of children's journey through school so we therefore endeavour to design our curriculum to ensure that children are ready for the transition to Year 1 and the new challenges children may experience as they move through school.

Implementation

Our curriculum follows the Early Years Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage and uses the Development Matters 2022 as a basis for planning learning experiences. These documents help us to ensure we have created a progressive, exciting and ambitious EYFS curriculum.

At Brampton, the development of PSED skills and British Values is a key focus within our EYFS classrooms. Children are taught PSED skills specifically through units of work but also through daily interactions with adults during continuous provision sessions.

We use a wide range of strategies to regularly assess children’s attainment in all areas of learning and then use these assessments to help us to plan for further learning. The curriculum is designed to include a blend of whole class, guided, adult directed play and child-initiated learning activities to ensure children are taught the skills and knowledge they need in a progressive manner as well as having opportunities to direct their own learning and follow their own interests.

Our classroom and outdoor environments are regularly audited to ensure children are accessing high quality provision and have the opportunity to be curious, explore and apply skills they have been taught in order to further their own learning. Staff are always keen to further develop provision by visiting other settings and the Early Excellence Centre for further inspiration.

There is a huge emphasis on early language skills in the EYFS. Many staff are trained in ECaT and the NELI programme. Children are screened using the ‘Language Screen’ programme and, those that need additional support, access speech and language programmes tailored to their needs. We also teach vocabulary specifically linked to topics and linked to texts read using the Drawing Club vocabulary approach.

The school follows the Read Write Inc. systematic, synthetic phonics scheme throughout school. Staff are trained and monitored regularly to ensure a consistent and successful approach. In FS2, children read daily in class during R,W,Inc session. These books and those that they take home to read are matched specifically to the phonic phase they are learning, ensuring they are able to read independently.  Children also take part in Drawing Club sessions every week which aim to inspire children to be enthusiastic mark makers and give them key skills to enable them to be confident independent writers.

We provide effective and focused intervention for those children who are finding learning challenging and are not on track to meet national expectations at the end of the year to enable them to catch up quickly with their peers. This is provided in an inclusive and flexible manner depending on the needs of the individual children. Children who are entitled to Pupil Premium additional funding also access additional interventions through bespoke daily activity packs in order to support them in their key skills acquisition.

Positive relationships are developed with parents from the start of the foundation stage. Parents are invited into the classroom every day when they bring their children to school as well as for special events or workshops. The EYFS team collect evidence of children’s learning through work completed in their class books, observations, photos and videos which are shared with parents using the Class Dojo online system. This means that parents can engage with children regularly about their learning and can contribute to the knowledge we have of the child in school.

Impact

The impact of the EYFS curriculum is reflected in having well rounded, happy and confident children at the end of the Reception Year. Most children leave the EYFS with a natural curiosity and a love of learning as well as the key skills they need to access the KS1 curriculum. Through the provision they have experienced in the EYFS, they develop the beginnings of the skills identified in our school ethos ‘Respect, Responsibility and Resilience'. Data shows children’s progress across the EYFS is consistently good from their varied starting points. 

Our EYFS Curriculum Map